Exam boards should be abolished

Scroll to see replies

Am I the only one kind of hoping that there are errors in my exam papers and that I instantly get full marks as a direct result?

:ahee:

Reply 21

MissLightyear

Original post by metro2610

Am I the only one kind of hoping that there are errors in my exam papers and that I instantly get full marks as a direct result?

:ahee:

But surely everyone else would get full marks and it would cancel it out with UMS and that?

Reply 22

gcse revision

They messed up my biology exam last year as well, and functional maths exam. It's so stupid, all they would have had to do is actually DO the paper!

Reply 23

Helpful_Charlie

Original post by Deceiver

I'm 90% sure there was an error on AQA's Geography 2 paper as well, and I'm not the only one who thinks this. It doesn't appear to have been reported though.

I didn't even spot the mistake and answered the 'impossible' question correctly. Now they're giving 4 marks to everyone, pushing the boundary up :mad:

Reply 24

Manitude

The number of mistakes this year has been pretty bad I must say.
One standardised exam board would be a reasonable idea I suppose. A few of my lecturers at university have said that this year is to bring everybody up to the same level because we've all come from different places with different standards and different courses.

Reply 25

Dastrea

I wonder how many more cases of exam board mistakes are gonna come up this year :s-smilie:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 26

Dastrea

Original post by Deceiver

I'm 90% sure there was an error on AQA's Geography 2 paper as well, and I'm not the only one who thinks this. It doesn't appear to have been reported though.

There was, something to do with a river.

Reply 27

choccandy21

lol and my teachers are constantly saying that 'examiners spend months trying to come up with the questions and making sure theyre doable' :rolleyes:

one would be simpler

Reply 28

intellectual1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/09/exam-board-watchdog-questions-errors

The qualification regulator is investigating six errors that have appeared in exam papers this summer.

Reply 29

metro2610

Original post by MissLightyear

But surely everyone else would get full marks and it would cancel it out with UMS and that?

I think they'd have to make an exception for it, afterall, AQA are doing just that for the mistakes on their AS Geography paper I believe :confused:

Reply 30

Sports Racer

There should be multiple exam boards to promote competition and innovation. Right now schools can choose their exam board for each subject based on their past experiences with the board, syllabus content and flexibility, the teachers' own preferences, and exam paper style. We don't want to restrict this! Plus, can you imagine what would happen if there was one large unwieldy exam board that never resolved complaints in time, etc, etc?

With regards to these 'impossible' questions, they should neither be discounted nor everyone given full marks. They should take the nature of the error into account and award method marks accordingly, in order to discriminate between those who could solve the question if it was actually solvable and those who couldn't do it regardless. The exception would be the multiple choice one, where they should simply ignore the question, and calculate total marks out of 97, or whatever.

Reply 31

hardleyouth

If there was ONE privately run exam board, they'd have a monopoly - bad for costs, and for service, they could run a **** service and all the schools would still have to buy in, or set prices high, and schools would HAVE to buy in?

Plus, it means if they made a mistake, it affects FAR more people

*EDIT*

But I do agree, I ****ing hate exam boards, and their lack of communication, their ****ty marking, their crap paper and comments turn around times, their high costs, ESPECIALLY, AQA!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 32

Darren-M

Original post by Dastrea

I heard on the radio that there was some dodgy GCSE papers aswell as AS papers. However, I can't find anything on the internet. Does anyone have anything about bad GCSEs or is it only AS levels at this point?

Quite a few newspapers are reporting that there have been two errors at GCSE level, but I can't find anything to back it up and would love to know if I was just an idiot in the AQA chemistry exam I sat..

If you find anything be sure to let us know!

Reply 33

69Crazyfists

I ****ing hate exam boards. They never accept that they've made a mistake.
I got an E in my AS French Oral exam on AQA. My teacher and invigilator said that I'd probably get an A straight after I finished. Coincidentally the guy above me on the list got exactly the same mark and he was predicted an E. I had it remarked and when eventually I had to fork out for a retake I got an A.

Reply 34

Extricated

I guarantee you, this time in august, there will be news stories about 500,000 incorrectly marked scripts. Exam boards are a joke, one day setting impossible questions, next day marking somebody down accidentally! My friend got a C in maths (predicted A*), he was shocked. He retook, and AFTER he retook, they told him that he got a C because THEY LOST HIS PAPER!

The big problem is that examiners want to do things too quickly, and i appreciate that they need to get stuff ready in time, but incorrect marking, incorrect questions are unacceptable!!!

Reply 35

Carolus

Original post by Extricated

I'm fairly sure that standard procedure in that case is that if the exam board loses your paper, then you are awarded the average of your other modules in that subject. Were his otehr modules in it also around a C grade?

Reply 36

cazzy-joe

Original post by street.lovin'

I think there should be exam board. But there should be only one.

If you allow school to create their own exams and be the examiners, then that would increase the chance of cheating etc.

Plus, that is what they do in Thailand and it really is making certain school that is in fact very crap looks much better because they use easier exams for their people.

Yeahhh true...they throw grades like hell here...but now central board system is also introduced and running side by side with school exams :biggrin:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 37

mrt23498

Original post by KoalaKim

i heard that one exam board put an a-level question in a GCSE maths paper... this year is so bad!
I think that if there was only one exam board then it would be better because everyone would have been tested by the same exam board so it would be easier to see who is actually the best.
Also if everyone did the same exams then everyone would have pretty much the same knowledge so it would be easier to change schools for a-levels because you would have the same knowledge as everyone who is already at that school because you did the same exam and learnt the same syllabus!

Would that be too bad? Core 1 is simply an extension of your maths gcse really.

Reply 38

Wisdom

i know and can somebody please explain to me international ones such as edexcel? cuz if i had a friend somewhere in the world and they were doing the gcse after me, surely i could tell them the questions or something?

Reply 39

MissClumsy

Original post by Helpful_Charlie

I didn't even spot the mistake and answered the 'impossible' question correctly. Now they're giving 4 marks to everyone, pushing the boundary up :mad:

Same - I just automatically read it as 0.05 as I knew that the inside bend of a river is where velocity is slowest, so didn't anticipate the exam board making an error :mad: